by Riley Ashby
“Nice to see you have a nice family here. No regret for the one you abandoned, I assume.”
“You know full well why I left.”
“What’s going on?” I whispered, but my father hushed me once more.
“You need to leave, Conrad. There’s nothing for you here.” Mom’s hand clasped Dad’s, his steady hand stilling her trembling one. “Please let this go.”
“I don’t let things go, Eva.” I gasped as his hand cracked across her cheek, then snapped out once more to punch my father in the face. “You stay locked up tight. We’ll be back.”
I clutched Mom’s shoulders and helped her sit in a chair, my father ignoring his own bloody nose to tend to her. She shook as tears fell down her face, but she stared after the young man called Meyer as they walked away. Just before he disappeared into my house, Meyer turned back to look at me one last time.
Why didn’t they tell me everything right then? Surely, then I could have been prepared for this nightmare and maybe even avoided it, but instead, I was wounded and anxious on the floor of Meyer’s home without the necessary information to defend myself.
I didn’t know how long I sat like that, wrapped up in myself, falling eventually to my side and hugging my arms against my chest. Joshua entered throughout the day to let me use the restroom, untying my hands briefly before refastening the rope. He let me out of the room to eat lunch, a similar spread of delicious food, but when it became clear I was no longer eating and was simply avoiding going back to the room, he pulled me to my feet and marched me back to the bedroom where I had nothing to do but stare blankly at the wall. As the shadows began to grow long on the wall, and the room fell into darkness, my eyelids grew heavy. I started to life when the door slammed open behind me, then closed my eyes as tight as I could. He was back.
“I heard you caused no problems today. I’m pleasantly surprised.”
A gasp escaped my lips as wide hands landed on my shoulders and pulled me to a sitting position. I tried to lean away from him, against the bed, but he jerked me forward and yanked at my shirt.
“Please,” I said. Back to begging. Useless. I tried to push his hands away, but there was no force behind it. What chance did I stand?
He looked at my wrists and pulled at the knot holding me together. “I knew Joshua would go soft on you,” he said as he freed my hands. “Hold your arms out.”
I stared at him, keeping my arms tight against my body. He sighed and grabbed my wrists, pulling my arms out wide and yanking up my shirt. I struggled to pull my arms back in and protect my chest. I couldn’t do this right now. There was no way I could defend against him. I simply hurt too much.
“Hold still,” he commanded. “This will hurt more if you struggle.”
“What are you going to do?” I sounded hysterical, even to myself, but I fought as well as I could against his grip.
Meyer grabbed my chin. “I said, hold still.”
Reaching into his back pocket with his other hand, he removed a roll of elastic wrap, like you would use on a sprained ankle, and gestured toward my torso. What did he want me to do? Take off my shirt?
“Oh, my God. I’m trying to help. Just lift your shirt.”
I hesitated a few moments longer, but he wasn’t forcing me, and after a beat, he let his hand fall from my chin. Reluctantly and with trembling hands, I pulled my shirt up to just beneath my breasts. He didn’t even seem to really look at me as he unwound the tape and proceeded to roll it around my torso. I shuddered at the feel of his breath on my neck as he leaned close to wrap it around my back.
“I promised you something nice, didn’t I?” His lips brushed against my shoulder. He fastened the end with some clips and sat back, holding out a new ice pack. “Here.” I grabbed it right away this time, not willing to let the gift go.
A gift.
Was this what he meant?
“Now, take these.” He held out his hand, and in his palm were two light pink pills.
I shuffled back and bumped into the bed. “I’m not taking anything you give me.”
“It’s just Percocet. For the pain.”
Again, he waited patiently as I weighed whether or not to trust him. But he was being so calm, and in his eyes, I thought I saw just a hint of compassion. This was above and beyond what I ever expected him to do for me. I held out my palm, and he handed me the pills.
“Let me know when it wears off, and I’ll give you more.”
I swallowed them dry, worried he’d take them away at any moment. He watched me with a bemused smile.
“Aren’t you going to thank me?”
I didn’t reply. This wouldn’t come without strings.
He crouched in front of me, fingers skating over on my bruises on my legs. He couldn’t keep his hands off them. I whimpered and shied away as he pressed against my skin, sending new pain through my already wrecked body.
“Don’t abuse my generosity, Mads. I can give you a good life if you surrender to me.”
So that’s what this was about. I bared my teeth at him and threw away the ice, immediately regretting my decision as the pain flared anew. “I’ll never give in to you. You disgust me. Your family disgusts me. I can’t stand you.”
His fingers pressed harder, and I couldn’t get any farther away. My spine ached where it pressed into the bedframe. I cried out, unable to stop myself. His hands hurt. His eyes on me hurt. Everything hurt.
“Be careful how you speak to me from now on. This is the last time I’ll let you get away with it.” He grabbed a handful of my hair and jerked my head to the side, pressing his lips against my neck. Everything about him was so feral, so raw, it was both terrifying and arousing in equal measure. If I hadn’t been so afraid, I would have loved it. I swallowed and tried to beat down everything except for fear of this man and what he wanted to do to me, but the movement only made his lips press against my skin harder. “Never forget this. You belong to me.”
Meyer
The ball flew at me faster than was safe, but the satisfying crack of the bat when I swung told me I’d hit a long one. At least a double if we’d been playing for real. Shawn and I had been hitting balls at the batting cages for over an hour, a rare treat for me. I always preferred being outdoors to the confines of my home or office. The past few years of hard work had sapped me of my energy and connection to the natural world, and I had expected to spend the entire day outside. I didn’t get to hang out casually with my best friend much anymore.
Shawn Delaney and I hadn’t known each other before coming into the company at the same time, but endless long nights and weekends fueled by takeout and after-work beers had cemented something akin to brotherly love between us. I didn’t kid myself; part of the reason he stuck so close to me was because he expected me to take him with me when I shot to the top. But he’d gone above and beyond what most co-workers would be expected to do, and he was one of the few people in the company who I trusted not to rat me out to my father on the rare occasion I made a mistake, so I kept him close.
“I hope that was a good lay you abandoned me for the other night. You know those guys barely tolerate me.”
My teeth bit into my cheek as I clenched my jaw before swinging again, this time popping it straight up so I had to hop back to avoid being hit. It was Sunday afternoon, a full day since I’d brought Madeline back to my house. I should have been at the office—one day off was more than enough—but the weather was too nice, and Shawn had been on my ass about going to the cages. My Saturday had been rather tense as I spent it with my father plotting out the next few months now that we had Madeline. By the time he decided we’d planned sufficiently, I was too worn out to even think about physical activity.
“That’s because you’ve got your nose too far up my ass. You should try rubbing elbows with someone else for a change.” Stepping out of the batting area, I yanked off my helmet, sweaty hair sticking to my forehead. Shawn took my place and lined up to bat. “What did they talk about after I left?”
“The usual. How
long until your father kicks it. Who’s fucking their assistant. Is she yours?”
God, he wouldn’t let it go. “I’ve told you about Eva, right?”
“Yeah.” He sounded confused for a moment. He swung wildly, missing the ball completely. “You’re fucking your dad’s ex?”
I suppressed a sigh. I had to remember Shawn didn’t have all the background on this situation. “No, Shawn, I’m not perverted. After Eva walked out on us, she got married and had a kid.”
Turning my head, I saw his jaw drop as realization dawned on him. “It’s her daughter?” He threw his head back laughing, teeth glinting in the light as a ball blew past without him even attempting to swing. “Damn, you have a weird idea of family traditions. Is she hot?”
I felt my hackles raise. “She belongs to me, Shawn.”
He rolled his shoulders and set up for the next pitch. “I won’t encroach. When will we see her?”
“In a couple of weeks, she should be ready to make a public appearance.”
If he thought that was a strange statement, he didn’t show it. Shawn had learned to look the other way when it came to certain statements I’d made over the years. “Can I meet her before then?”
I scowled. Everyone was always trying to get into my space. “I’m not running a zoo. It’s bad enough Conrad thinks he can barge in whenever he wants.”
“I was just asking.”
“Well, the answer is no.”
I couldn’t explain why I was so averse to him coming over or seeing her before I was ready to show her to anyone. Being given ownership over another human being had done something to the primal part of my brain that told me I really did have actual control over everything she did. It had pissed me off to no end that Conrad strolled in the other day without so much as a knock. I didn’t need Shawn coming over and seeing the true state she was in.
“I’m going back,” I said, dropping my helmet and bat back into my bag and zipping it without waiting for him to get out of the cage.
“Your arm hurt? I know it’s been a while since we’ve hit so many balls. It’s gotta be jarring those pins.”
“That’s not it,” I snapped. He knew bringing up my arm would piss me off. “It’s my day off, and I’m going to spend it how I want to.”
He shrugged. “Whatever.” In one bright moment, our interaction had turned from friendly to hostile. He was angry with me, but I didn’t really care.
We parted ways in the parking lot. I could tell Shawn wanted to talk more, but I more or less shut my door in his face and drove off with barely a wave. At my house, I told Joshua to put my gear away and headed inside to shower.
Madeline was sitting on the floor at the foot of my bed, tied much tighter than the day before. When she raised her head to look at me, her eyes were rimmed red.
“What’s wrong?” I snapped, grabbing her hands. The knot where the rope was tied was worried and frayed. “Have you been biting this?”
“It hurts, Meyer.” She wiggled her fingers to show me. They were swollen and red, almost purple at the tips. “Please untie me. You don’t need to keep doing this to me.”
“The only thing I need to do is whatever the hell I want!” The knot was pretty solid, and her pulling at it had only had the opposite effect. I grabbed my knife and cut her loose. “You just made things worse for yourself by messing with it.”
She snatched her hands away from me and rolled her wrists. Her eyes squeezed shut as her face twisted in pain. “Why do you need to be so cruel?”
Because you deserve it.
Because it’s my nature.
Because I don’t know any other way.
“Come on. I need to show you something.”
“Can I eat first?”
As if on cue, her stomach grumbled. Looking down, I remembered I was still in my sweaty clothes. “Fine.” I grabbed her arm and dragged her down the hallway to the kitchen, where Joshua sat playing on his phone. I didn’t keep any staff besides him, knowing anyone I let into my house would really be on my father’s dime instead of mine. Even though I paid Joshua triple the normal rate for his services as bodyguard and general attendant, I knew he still wasn’t fully insulated from Conrad’s influence. “Make her some food.”
“I can feed myself.” She jerked her arm out of my grasp, but I grabbed her chin and backed her up against the wall. She gasped as fresh tears sprung to her eyes.
“Stop. Testing. Me.” God, I was fucking sick of this attitude. How could someone get kicked so many times while she was down and still be so insolent? “If I leave, you will starve. You only live as long as I will it. Do you understand?”
Tears clung to her lashes, constellations falling to the earth as she nodded. I thought about how they’d look with the addition of my cock in her mouth, on her knees in front of me, and I had to step back quickly to keep from bringing that fantasy to life. I turned to look at Joshua as I strode out of the kitchen. “Feed her.”
I showered and changed quickly, donning khaki shorts and a striped red polo. When I came back to the kitchen with my hair still damp, Madeline was finishing what looked like a grilled cheese sandwich. Her eyes were still slightly red, but she wasn’t sniffling anymore, and her voice was clear when she spoke.
“Thank you, Joshua,” she said. “That was delicious.”
He nodded. “My pleasure.”
I scowled. No need for her to be friendly with the help. “Let’s go.”
“Don’t you need to eat?”
My glare hardened. “You’re not getting out of this.”
“But you are hungry, right?” She raised her eyebrows at me.
Damn, she was right, and it pissed me off. “I’ll have a granola bar.” I grabbed one out of the pantry and grabbed her arm, pulling her out into the sunlight. She squinted her eyes tight against the sun.
“Enjoy the sunlight. You’re not going to see much of it from now on.”
“What do you mean? You can’t keep me locked up.”
“You keep saying that. ‘You can’t, you can’t.’ But I can, Madeline, and I am. The sooner you accept that, the easier things will be for you.” The wind whipped her hair into my face. I gathered it in one hand and pulled it behind her head. In the bright light, her skin appeared even more pale and the bruises redder. Her eye was still swollen nearly shut, but the cut from Conrad’s ring didn’t look infected. I raised my hand to brush the backs of my fingers against her face. “This is important. You need to pay attention to what I’m about to tell you. It’s not going to be pretty, but it’ll help you understand why I’m acting the way I am.”
“Like an insufferable ass?”
I squeezed my fist tighter, tilting her head back. “Believe it or not, I don’t like treating you like this. I’d much rather pull your hair while I ride your ass in bed. But if you keep undermining me in front of everyone and when we’re alone, I will make things very painful for you.” Releasing her, I turned her around and shoved her in the direction of my backyard. “Walk.”
She dug her heels into the dirt. “I’m not letting you take me out there.” All flippancy was gone from her voice; she finally sounded properly afraid. “You’ll put a bullet into my head.”
“Not yet.” I pushed again, and she finally stumbled forward toward the trees. She glanced back at me occasionally as we walked, but I gestured her forward every time. She folded her arms and hunched her shoulders, though it must have hurt her to bend like that, pulling her shirt so tight across her back that the purple bruises showed through the light fabric. When we reached the clearing, she stopped dead, staring at the cross in the center of the open space with trepidation.
“Not a human grave, if that’s what you’re worried about.” I pushed her forward a few more steps. “Though the cross is a little bizarre.”
“Bizarre because you think the only higher power is money?”
I shrugged without offense. “Something like that. I think I only put it there because I saw it on TV.”
She tenta
tively stepped forward to the front of the grave marker and crouched in front of it. “Daisy,” she read. She twisted to look at me. “You brought me to your dog’s grave?” Standing, she stepped to the side and away from me. I matched her step for step. “What the fuck out of a Stephen King novel is this?”
“I wanted to show you the first thing I ever killed.”
Her eyes went wide as she stumbled backward. “Wh-what do you mean?”
I pulled her back to stand in front of the marker. “Your mother got me Daisy.”
She gasped audibly, looking back and forth between me and the grave so quickly I was afraid she’d snap her neck. “When did you know my mother?”
“I was young.” I had to bite the words through my teeth; just dredging up this memory was painful. “But I’ll never forget the day she presented me with the tiny golden retriever puppy. She’d found it wandering around the property. Instead of leaving it out here to starve, she carried it home, cleaned it up, and gave it to me with a pink bow tied around its neck.” Madeline was staring at me curiously. “What?”
“You’re saying it, not her.”
I frowned. “It’s a dog.” I didn’t like the look she was giving me, as if she’d learned something about me and was pleased with what she saw.
“Anyway.” I directed her attention back to the grave. “Conrad doesn’t like animals. He handed me a gun and helped me pull the trigger. Your mother screamed the whole time.”
Madeline was shaking. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
I ignored her. “I was six years old. I cried when it happened, and Conrad hit me so hard he gave me a black eye.” I grabbed her shoulders and pulled her to face me. “He taught me a lesson that day, Mads. It’s important for you to know that. No matter how hard you try or how much you think you can appeal to my better nature, know this.” I leaned over a little to be at eye level with her. “I don’t have one. It was burned out of me before I could spell my name. There is nothing you can do or say to make this experience easier for you. And I am going to do everything in my power to make you hurt just as badly as I did when your mother betrayed my family twenty-two years ago.”
